English Dub Review: Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation

Overview:

This ONA tells the story of a wandering samurai.

Our Take:

Ryuma Shimotsuki is a samurai who wanders from place to place. He winds up in a village and gets free food from a girl named Flair. He also clashes with a legendary swordsman named Shirano. Ryuma then learns than Shirano saved Flair from a dragon attack when she was younger.

Ryuma laters bumps into a guy with a dragon’s horn, who summons a dragon to the village. History might repeat itself, but Shirano is willing to save the village. That is, until the truth comes out about what’s really going on.

This is a prequel, of sorts, to One Piece and that’s very apparent. The humor is exactly what I’d expect, as are the visuals. Shirano kind of resembles Mihawk, Flair looks like a lot like nami did pre-timeskip and Ryuma shares some facial features with Zoro. Speaking of Zoro, he makes a brief cameo in this ONA, which is cool to see.

The story is pretty simple, but effective. The action is enjoyable as well and I like how the fight scenes are animated. It’s a shame this is only a 25-minute one-off special. I would like to see more of these characters in this era. That being said, it’s a still an enjoyable watch. I don’t even think you need to be a One Piece fan to have fun with this.